Hello all! Sorry for the long delay! My internet crashed like a darn freight train that fell out of the sky in a whirl wind of tornados! Cable dude couldn't get here till today! So, imagine being cut off from the world for almost a week! All my files are in my laptop! No access until today! never knew how I appreciated mobile devices until you lose them! Yes, I hugged my laptop for a good ten minutes, my family thought I'd lose my mind (not that they knew I'd lose them already!)
anyways, here you are...next chapter!
-Thank you to everyone for fave/like this story! And to all for reviewing this story, you guys are the BEST!
. 10th Muse
Criminal Minds
Meeting Marcella
Chapter 3
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When Hotch entered the BAU conference room, he was met with silence.
He glanced around and saw his team were busily signing! They were actually communicating with each other using hand signings!
Of course there were the occasional laughter from them or Blake correcting their finger curvatures before she nodded and returned to 'talking' with each of them.
When they were sure of themselves, they turned to each other and began to sign with more bursts of laughter.
A minute went by before they noticed his presence and as one, they held their hands up and 'greeted' him hello in sign language!
The group laughed as he shook his head, taking his place at the front of the table. Touched by their gestures, he smiled, "Thank you everyone. It means a lot to me. I guess I'm behind in the learning curve."
"It's not that difficult, Hotch." Alex pointed out. "It'll take me less than fifteen minutes to give you a crash course on the basic alphabets and nuances." She paused and looked at him, "That's if you want to."
"Of course, I do. I have a dinner date with my daughter...and the Ambassador tonight. So, I'd need to polish up my communication skills."
She nodded, "It's no problem, Hotch. Marcella is a delightful child."
He smiled proudly. "She is."
"Father and daughter...how adorbs!" Garcia gushed on her small screen. "What I'd give to be there!"She stared off then turned to face them, "Then again, I'd rather not, since the Ambassador's gonna be there. She's a scary one."
Blake frowned, "Why, Garcia?"
"Oh...didn't you know?" She frowned and then shook her head. "A couple of years a she came here and we helped her solve some missing person case, and her old friend or servant received a severed finger!" Garcia's eyes were bugged out! "It was not pleasant. Utterly bloody."
"Garcia..." Hotch frowned at her. "Can we get back to the present?"
She looked contrite, "Oh...yes sir! Of course, gladly." She nodded.
He walked to the front of the room and turned to face them, "As you know, the Ambassador had informed me of Emily's MIA status, as well as that of Clyde Easter's."
"Who is this Clyde Easter?" Alex piped in. "What is his relationship?"
"He is Emily's boss in INTERPOL, to put it shortly." Hotch answered, and he hesitated a bit before he continued, "He's also Marcella's godfather."
The team nodded. Aside from Blake, the rest of them knew about Emily and Clyde's close relationship, where they had worked together previously in a Joined Task Force unit which introduced them to the notorious Ian Doyle, who escaped from a prison in North Korea and came back to avenge his downfall, killing almost all of her old team, the only ones who survived were Easter and Emily. They knew Emily and Clyde had a very unique brother and sister/close friend relationship, so it was no surprise to them Clyde would be Marcella's godfather!
"I see." Blake nodded as Garcia quickly put up Clyde's picture next to Emily's on the large screen. "Oh...he's a looker." Blake grinned. "Pity I'm happily married."
"He's French...just FYI." JJ smiled as she turned to Alex; she knew Blake liked all things French.
On cue, Blake perked up, "Oh really? Well, when we managed to find them, I think I'm going to disappear with him for a while." She said with a straight face.
It took a while for the team to realize she had pull their legs!
They began to laugh heartily and threw balled up papers at her where she tried to duck but unsuccessfully.
Garcia, in her office, was laughing at their antics, wishing she was there participating.
Hotch and Dave exchanged indulging looks as they waited their rautious behavior like two parents.
It took a few minutes before the team were back to their serious self.
"According to the Ambassador, Emily had a text from one of her INTERPOL officers at the last moment before she left work. That was the last time Elizabeth Prentiss heard from her daughter." Hotch continued.
"Is there a way we can intercept her text calls or messages?" Morgan suggested.
"Her phone calls and texts are are encrypted, I tried." Garcia provided. "Believe me, I tried to hack into her phone once when she wouldn't answer me when I tried to call her one evening and boy...that was a mistake," She looked worried. "She had plenty of choice words for me."
Hotch looked concerned, "What..."
"Oh, no worries, it was my fault, I had interrupted an undercover sting." She looked embarrassed. "Never again. But she did apologized to me later that it was her fault...she should have shut her phone off during such missions." Garcia shrugged.
The team nodded as they looked relieved. "We're still nowhere about how to get into INTERPOL." Reid pointed out.
JJ who had been quiet this whole time suddenly spoke, "Garcia, try this..." she began to read out a set of codes from her phone. "This is a Top Secret code, so please destroy them once you've use it." She looked at her team and said, "it's State Department stuff." She shrugged before she returned her attention to Penelope, "These codes are sensitive and don't tell anyone where you obtained them or I'll have to shoot you."
Garcia frowned on the screen, "Haha, Jayje...right? Tell me you're kidding."
JJ stared at her friend for a moment with a serious expression before she grinned, "Of course I'm joking, Pen." Then she sobered. "But I am serious about the sensitivity about the codes. I will shoot you, and you know I'm a pretty good shot."
"Uh...yes...I remembered." Her recollection of how deadly JJ's shot came to her mind when she recalled her shooting a cop between his eyes, James Battle, who'd shot Garcia for interferring in his work that happened many years ago. She still had some residual nightmares about it, and damn...she knew she was going to have one that night. Just great. "Your secret is my secret, Jagje." Garcia smiled as she cross her heart for effect.
JJ rolled her eyes but she smiled, "Good enough."
"Hmmm..." Garcia frowned.
The team leaned forward, unconsciously, "Is that a good hmmm? Or a bad one?" Reid speculated.
"I think it's a good one, right mamma?" Morgan tried to sound positive but his eyes looked nervous.
Penelope glanced up at the screen, "That depends on your view point..."
"Garcia." Hotch said pointedly.
She pursed her lips, "Okay, okay...got it...get to the point."
He nodded.
"First of all, I'm in." She smiled and nodded at JJ who nodded back. "Secondly, there are tons and tons of texts I have to sift through," She waved her hands. "It's like pouring a cup of flour through a sifter and looking for that one grain of tiny grain..."
"I think," Hotch cut her off. "I think we got your meaning, Penelope."
She nodded. "Thousands, Hotch." She quickly added.
"Garcia, can you patch all the texts to our laptops?" Alex suggested. "Perhaps we could give you a hand in sifting? I mean all these 'cooks' here might not spoil the soup?" She smiled at the un-metaphor, the team grinned and nodded as they agreed to her plan.
"Yes, I think Alex is right, we can help you, Garcia." Dave grinned. "And the genius can sift faster than a bloodhound, can you?" He teased as he turned to Reid.
"Of course, but do you know a blood hound can smell a scent more than 130 miles from the origin?"
"No?" Alex seemed intrigued. "That's interesting."
Reid was about to begin when he saw Hotch's warning looks and the young doctor backed away, "I'll...I'll tell you about...about it later." He quickly looked away. "Much later."
Alex caught Hotch's looks too and chuckled, "Later, Spencer. I do want to hear all about it. James and I are talking about adopting a dog but we couldn't decide which breed."
Reid turned back to her and nodded, "That's great to know, Alex." He sounded reluctant.
She frowned, "What is it?"
"Dogs...and I, we don't get along very well." He recalled his several encounters with dogs from his works.
The others in his team smiled and Morgan even chuckled; they knew about his personal phobia and that how dogs could sense his fear for them.
Hotch smiled and then tried to steer them back to the current situation, and tried to steer Reid from thinking too much of his fears.
He knew that when he felt threatened, Reid would lose focus, and at this moment, he needed Reid's full attention.
"Reid, Alex, and Morgan, could you work with Garcia on the files?"
They nodded and began to read the texts Garcia instantly downloaded on their laptops.
Hotch turned to the JJ and Dave, "I need you two with me." He made for the door.
"And where are we heading?"
"Chief Cruz's office, and then the Deputy Director." Hotch said as they began to walk towards the elevator. "JJ, I need your help with anyone you know at States who knows anyone in London, especially in the MI-6."
"Oh." JJ uttered. "MI-6?"
"Yeah. Is there a problem?" He looked at her.
She shook her head, "Nope, not at all. I do have a few friends."
Dave gave her a surprised look, "You do?"
JJ nodded.
"Hmm." He muttered.
"What?" JJ looked at him.
"Nothing." He tried to act normal as Hotch watched their interaction.
She frowned, "Nothing? There's a lot of something for nothing, Dave Rossi."
He looked stunned, "But..."
Hotch jerked his elbow and shook his head, "Don't, Dave."
"What?" Dave was starring at Hotch. "I didn't do anything."
"You hmmm."
"And that's nothing." Dave tried to sound defensive. "Goodness woman! What's gotten into you?"
"Nothing." She leaned back against the wall of the elevator, arms across her chest.
"Oh, so it's okay for you to say it's nothing but not for me?" Dave looked thoroughly confused.
Luckily, for everyone, especially Hotch, the elevator doors opened as he quickly stepped out with a breath of relief.
"I think you need to examine your levels of estrogen, JJ." Dave stepped from her and joined Hotch.
JJ stared at him, mouth opened, "My what?"
…...
End of Part 3